Representative Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives on July 9 that calls upon China, as a matter of good will, to release Phuntsog Nyidron and other prisoners of conscience in Tibet.
Udall’s resolution, House Resolution 476 (H.Res. 476), was referred to the House International Relations Committee.
The resolution says that the Beijing regime “continues to imprison individuals as prisoners of conscience for involvement in efforts to end the Chinese occupation of Tibet.”
The resolution goes on to charge that China’s communist government also continues “to exert control over religious and cultural institutions in Tibet, abusing human rights through torture, arbitrary arrest, and detention without public trial of Tibetans who peacefully expressed their political or religious views.”
H.Res. 476 concludes that Beijing should, “as a gesture of good will and in order to promote human rights, release prisoners of conscience such as Phuntsog Nyidron.”
Phuntsog Nyidron, a Tibetan Buddhist nun, was arrested in Lhasa in 1989 after peacefully demonstring agains the Chinese occupation of Tibet. She is serving a 17-year sentence in Drapchi prison.
In 1993, Nyidron and 13 other nuns sang and recorded songs about Tibetan independence that were smuggled out of prison, after which Nyidron’s sentence was extended by 8 years.
Phuntsog Nyidron was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1995.